Your Redeeming Love
by xonceinadream
Summary: [Disney-Kink Fill] When Flynn is brought back for 24 hours to save Rapunzel he reunites Rapunzel with her parents and bares his heart to her.


Written for disney-kink on livejournal. See my livejournal (linked on my profile page) for more details.

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The hanging occurs at sunset and Flynn can just see the sun setting behind the buildings as the trap door is dropped. The hangman jerks the rope at the last second of the drop, ensuring that Flynn's neck breaks and he falls unconscious within seconds. They leave his body hanging, the life leaving him slowly, death not taking him until nearly 20 minutes after the initial break of his neck.

He's looking in the direction of Rapunzel's tower as he falls, thinking about what's going to happen now that she's left with her mother again. He wants to save her. He needs to save her. He loves her. And that's his last thought before he falls unconscious. He loves her.

It's what calls Fate to him and he opens his eyes, standing a few feet away from his body. "What the-?" he murmurs, turning around in a circle. There's no wind and it seems that time has stopped. Is this what death is like? He gets to stare at his dead body forever? Well that seems like a rip-off. How seriously not cool.

"I am Fate. I stopped the time. Your love for the princess called me here," Fate says. Flynn needs to shade his eyes when he turns to the being and he can't make out an outline of a body. It looks like the sun, yellow light coming from every line that he can see, making Fate appear bigger and yet smaller. After a moment, Flynn realizes that it might not even have an actual body.

Flynn blinks at the being, wondering which part is weirder, Fate appearing before him or seeing his dead body hanging there like that. He's had a weird few days. "Wait, my love for who?"

The being seems to smile, at least, that's what it looks like to Flynn. Perhaps he just senses a smile-like emotion coming from it. How really weird. "The princess. Rapunzel. A love as strong as that which is between you and her calls me. She is in grave danger, Eugene Fitzherbert."

"Flynn Rider," he corrects softly.

Ignoring him, the being goes on. "She needs to be rescued. You will be given 24 hours to save her and say your final goodbyes. If you do not wish to do this then you can, of course, be taken immediately to the afterlife."

Flynn looks at Fate, trying to wrap his mind around this. Just last night he had been looking at the lanterns with the most amazing girl he had ever met. They hadn't even been able to share their kiss and now he's… "Either way, I'm dead, though, right?" Fate nods and Flynn looks over at his body. There's nothing to think about, nothing to be said. Rapunzel is in danger. He turns back to her immediately. "Where is she?"

There is a bright flash and Flynn finds himself at the bottom of the tower. "Whoa," he mumbles, tilting his head back and forth, blinking a few times. His body feels strange, as if he hasn't eaten in a while. He feels empty. Flynn looks up at the window, wondering how he's going to get up there, knowing he has to get up there and suddenly. "Whoa!"

Flynn floats upward slowly, his arms and legs flailing. He has never felt anything so odd and his hand was healed by magical hair. His head feels a little jumbled as he floats upside down and then right side up again, the journey taking much too long and he's thankful that it doesn't appear he can get sick anymore. Before he's fully ready and prepared, he's at the window and he clambers inside, doing a double take as he realizes that his foot had gone through a pot full of flowers. As he hears a whimper, all thoughts leave his mind as he sees Rapunzel tied up, a gag in her mouth.

"Rapunzel!" he all but yells, falling to his knees next to her as he unties her. She's trembling and he thinks that he might be as well because in the back of his mind he realizes that he only has 24 hours left with this beautiful girl. He only has 24 hours left to touch her and kiss her and he forces the thought from his mind. "Rapunzel, you're the princess. You're the princess. Where's your mother? You need to be reunited with your parents."

The second that Rapunzel is out of the bonds she flies at him, her arms around his neck and he catches her, closing his eyes as everything about her overwhelms him. Flynn feels ultra-aware of everything, every way her body presses against him and the way she smells and breathes. "I know. I just figured it out. Oh, Eugene. I knew you would come back. She said you were dead."

With those words, she pulls back to look at him, as if to reassure herself that he's not dead. He can't break it to her yet, though. He just can't. Instead, he leans forward, pressing his lips to hers and it is just as amazing as he had hoped and thought that it would be. Rapunzel's lips are soft against his, her touch even softer as she cups his neck and he brings a hand up to cup her cheek. He wants more. He wants forever. That word makes him pull away from her slowly. "We've got to get you out of here."

"I don't think so." Mother Gothel sounds out of breath as if she had run a great distance when she had heard movement. He doesn't doubt it and he smirks at her. She looks like she's seen a ghost and he plans to use that to perhaps scare her into not coming after her.

Flynn stands up, pulling Rapunzel along with him carefully but it's not needed. Rapunzel seems completely fed up and he feels a surge of pride, of wonder, of thinking that maybe she'll be okay. He has to get her back to her family. "I do," Flynn says. It comes instinctively as he lifts a hand, a burst of light coming out of him. It has a yellowish tinge and he is reminded of when Rapunzel healed his hand.

Rapunzel looks at him with wide eyes but he shakes his head. "I'm taking her back to her parents. If you know what's good for you then you'll leave her alone."

From across the tower, Gothel looks at them angrily, her body crumpled from where she had flown backwards but Flynn ignores her, watching as Pascal runs towards Rapunzel, climbing up onto her shoulder and sticking his tongue out at Gothel. It isn't until they've walked a ways away from the tower that Rapunzel turns to him. "What… was that?"

Flynn purses his lips, looking into her eyes. He has so many things that he wants to say and do. He wants to tell her he loves her. He wants to kiss those adorable lips again. He opens his mouth and then closes them again. "Rapunzel…" With a frown, he knows that he has to tell her the truth. He can't let her think that they can have forever. If… if she wants that as well, he can't be sure. "Rapunzel, I was dead. They went through with the hanging. Fate came and I have 24 hours to rescue you."

"If you didn't want to tell me the truth you only had to say so," Rapunzel murmurs, sounding extremely offended as she turns away from him.

He doesn't want to spend even a moment arguing with her so he slides his arm around her waist, feeling her hands on his chest as he pulls her close, kissing her again. Flynn could quite happily spend the next 24 hours doing nothing but kissing her.

They begin walking again after a while, stopping occasionally to kiss but Flynn insists that they walk. Rapunzel doesn't ask again about it and Flynn doesn't want to convince her. When Rapunzel gets too tired, the stars shining in the sky they stop and Rapunzel presses close to him as they talk and talk. Flynn listens to her talk about her childhood and tells her all the little details of his childhood. He only has 24 hours left. He hides nothing from her, smiling every time she makes a sound of distress, every time she kisses his throat, every time she insists on stopping so that she can kiss his lips hard.

Flynn doesn't sleep and he doesn't get tired, just lays and listens to the sound of Rapunzel breathing. She clenches her fingers in his shirt and he wishes that he could fall asleep to her every night and wake up. Every way he's different now is illuminated as he doesn't get tired and he pretends that he had a restful night when she awakens and they set off again. They reach the palace after only an hour or so of walking. Flynn wants to hesitate but Rapunzel goes up to one of the guards as if she belongs there and Flynn has to remind himself that she does. "I'm the lost princess," she says.

Flynn wants to reach out, tell her that she can't just tell the guards that she's the lost princess but obviously she resembles one of her parents because the guard does a double take and then leads them inside. He wants to leave her to meet her parents but she holds onto him as the guard leads them through to a balcony right outside the castle. "Rapunzel, this is meeting your parents. I shouldn't be with you for this."

"I want you with me," she murmurs, looking at him, and he can see that she's trying to recognize something in his eyes.

He feels sick as she looks at him with such hope. "I love you," he says, watching as her face breaks out into a smile and the sickness intensifies. He knows that he couldn't have left her in the evil woman's hands but he feels guilty for doing this to her.

Squeezing his hand, Rapunzel smiles so wide at him and she is simply radiant. "I love you too," she says and for a moment he thinks that he can see yellow light glowing out of her, just like Fate.

They both turn as the doors fly open and there stand the king and queen. As soon as Flynn sees them he can see why the guard had immediately escorted Rapunzel back there. Rapunzel looks just like her mother although he wonders where she got her hair color from. Flynn is surprised when they reach out, pulling him into a family hug but he goes with it.

Flynn pulls back after a while though, kissing Rapunzel's cheek, making her promise to seek him out after she has bonded with her parents and retiring to a side room. He paces, watching the clock, feeling like every minute is passing so extraordinarily slow and at the same time too fast. He wants the 24 hours to last forever but the time without Rapunzel is taking too long. For a while, he talks to the guards, telling them that Rapunzel is still in danger but, now that they're aware and that Rapunzel is older, he knows that she'll be alright. After seeing him, he has a feeling that the woman won't be coming back.

It feels like it's been days when she finally comes in, her smile wide as she wraps her arms around his neck. "Thank you for reuniting us," she says, her eyes gleeful as she looks up at him.

"Rapunzel, it's getting late," he responds, looking out at the sky. It has to be nearly noon and so he has maybe 7 hours left. It doesn't seem like long enough. He wants to marry her. He wishes that he could marry her, have children with her, be with her forever. Flynn can hide nothing even from himself because he is dead and his body will be gone in 24 hours and he wants to stay with her.

"Mother and Father have said that you can stay. You have to stay in an entire different wing but I've told them all about you. If you want to stay then-"

He reaches up a hand, covering her mouth carefully, gently, looking into her eyes. His heart breaks because he knows that she wants just what he wants. Flynn chooses his words carefully, moving his hands so that he grabs hers. "My 24 hours is nearly up."

Rapunzel tilts her head to the side, shaking her head, frowning deeply. "Why do you believe that you only have 24 hours? Or is that just an excuse to leave me?"

"I didn't sleep last night, Rapunzel. I saw my body. It's probably still hanging where they left me. I don't want to leave you, Rapunzel but I have to. It was my time," he whispers because he still doesn't think that's fair. "I came back because my love for you was so strong. And now I have to go. I mean, you have freaky magic hair. This is kinda the same thing. You know that freaky stuff happens."

Setting her jaw, Rapunzel shakes her head. Flynn wishes that he could read her mind. He hopes that she understands just how much he wants to be with her. "We'll see when your 24 hours are up," she says stubbornly.

He supposes that's the best he's going to get out of her. "Alright. Let's go out though. Please. Humor me. Just for my final hours."

Rapunzel looks up at him and for just a moment he thinks he sees a sadness in her eyes that means that she understands that they really only do have a few hours left. Then she nods, the movement almost impersonal as she plays with the hair on the back of his neck. "I can humor you. Where should we go?"

Flynn feels guilty for only a moment about taking her away from her parents but he knows that she has the rest of her life to spend with them. He avoids the guards, simply because he's not sure who would have seen his dead body and he doesn't want to make a scene. They dance in the square where they had first danced, thankful that Rapunzel's mother had put her hair up.

They talk more, taking off their shoes and wading into the water. Flynn thinks he knows everything there is to know about her life before they met and he's not bored, even when she says that it was boring, talking about how she did the same thing every day. Perhaps it has to do with her lips as he watches them, leaning in to kiss her every few moments.

He loves her. He feels his heart beat inside of his strange not quite his body and when he looks at the sky he knows that his time is coming. He doesn't want to leave her. He falters in the middle of a story as he looks, seeing that the sun is starting to set. Rapunzel looks up as well and she looks over at him, shaking her head desperately. "Don't leave me."

"I don't want to. Rapunzel, please believe me that I don't want to leave you." He can't breathe as he looks over at her and he wonders whether this time it'll be as painless as his neck breaking. "I love you. I've never been so honest with anybody before but these past 24 hours… They've been the best day of my life."

Flynn means that with all of his heart as Rapunzel's eyes fill with tears. He wonders if she had believed him in the very beginning, if she hadn't wanted to believe it and he doesn't blame her. Who would want to believe it? He doesn't want to. "I love you. What am I going to do? You freed me. You're my new dream. My new dream is to be with you."

For a moment, Flynn can't answer because he's too choked up. She was his new dream too. He would've done anything for her. He came back from death for her. "You'll have a new new dream. You'll meet new people. You have your parents."

Shadows begin to fall as Rapunzel presses herself as close to him as she can. She looks into his eyes, not saying a word and he doesn't speak either. They look at each other and Flynn wonders if his life would've been different if somebody had looked at him with the amount of love that she's looking at him with before now. A minute passes and Rapunzel slips forward as Flynn disappears. She presses her hands to her face, pressing hard on her eyes and lets her hands fall again as if she expects him to be back.

Flynn is only allowed to watch for a moment before Fate appears before him again. "Come. She will be alright. The guards know she's here," the being says, reaching out a hand to Flynn.

Looking down at the hand glowing brightly, he wonders what would happen if he didn't take it. He reaches out and rests his hand in the being's, aware of being weightless and then of being in a very bright place.

"You've done well, Eugene Fitzherbert. You have been selfless and you will be rewarded."

"What?" Flynn asks, looking around, wondering whether this is the afterlife. He's rapidly getting a headache from the brightness of it all and he hopes that he's not destined to be here forever. He doesn't think he'd like that very much and especially after the last 24 hours he believes that he deserves an enjoyable afterlife.

Fate turns a page.

Flynn remembers nothing as he hangs onto stone. "Wow. I could get used to a view like this."


End file.
